Golf-club.



PATENTED DEC. 13, 1904.

0. E. CLARK.

GOLF CLUB.

APPLICATION FILED DBO. 2, 1903.

mm MODEL.

STATES Patented December 13, 1904;.

CHARLES E. CLARK, OF LYNN, MASSACHUSETTS.

GULF-"@ILUB,

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N0. 777,400, dated December 13, 1904:.

Application filed December 2, 1903. Serial No. 183,481. (No model.)

To (ti/Z whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, CHARLns E. CLARK, of Lynn, county of Essex, State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Golf- (Jlubs, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, like characters on the drawings representing like parts.

This invention relates to golf-clubs, and has for its object to provide the club with a ringlike head which may be made as a forging having a spring-acting ball-engaging portion which responds instantly as the head strikes the ball and acts to materially increase the drive of the ball by accelerating its speed, said head being constructed in such manner that it may be cheaply manufactured and will not easily become injured even though subjected to severe usage.

The invention consists in a head formed to present a ring-like member comprising a U- shaped portion, preferably spring-acting, and a chord-like spring-acting ball-engaging portion connected thereto at its extremities, and a handle-receiving socket projecting from said U-shaped portion at a point near the balhengaging portion and approximately in the plane with said ball-engaging portion.

Figure 1 shows in plan view a golf-club having a head embodying this invention. Fig.

said Ll-shaped portion, which is formed integrally therewith. The straight or chordlike ball-engaging portion a has a flat ballengaging face and is made quite thin, so as to possess an inherent spring action. The end of the U-shaped portion?) which joins the outer end 01 the ball-engaging portion a is made quite thin, so as to possess an inherent spring action, and the other end of said U- shaped portion, as (Z, which joins the inner end of the ball engaging portion, is made thicker and is quite rigid. The spring-act ing ball-engaging portion a being thus springsupported is instantly responsive when the head strikes the ball, so that the drive of the ball will be materially increased by accelerating its speed.

The handle-receiving socket projects from the Li -shaped portion at a point near the ballengaging portion and approximately in the plane with said ball-engaging portion, and the U-shaped portion for its most part is thereby disposed at the rear side 01'' the handle-receiw ing socket and acts not only as a spring-acting support for the ball-engaging portion and as a support for the handle-receiving socket, but also acts to balance the head, which it would not do if the handle-receiving socket projected from it at a point midway between the ball-engaging portion and that part of the support most remote from said ball-engaging portion.

I claim- In a golf-club, a head comprising a handlesocket, a spring-acting portion at one side of said socket provided with a flat ball-engaging face, and an arched portion at the other side of said socket rigid for the greater part of its length and having a spring-acting outer end, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have signed 1n y name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesscs. A

, CHARLES F. CLARK;

Witnesses:

B. J. NOYES, H. B. DAVIS. 

